Ankur Patar is an artist with a talent for recreating famous paintings. His forgeries wouldn’t fool a child, let alone an art expert, but they’re still absolutely remarkable pieces of art unto themselves because they’re painstakingly assembled in Photoshop using nothing but stock photos.

Recently, I had occasion to search the stock photography database Shutterstock for pictures depicting ancient Rome. A theme quickly emerged: sexy ancient Romans. There are a lot of depictions of sexy ancient Romans. Even for a passel of horn dogs like the ancient Romans, it’s a lot!

Be it in an ad, article, or product announcement, there's a good chance that—at some point—your eyes have darted over the discomforting image of a person gaily laughing and emphatically gesturing towards the cold, vacuous oblivion of a blank TV screen. And you probably didn't even notice it! But once you do, things…

We see overly specific, overwrought stock photography all the time. Like who ever decides that a picture of 'hot girl in business suit crying because she's trapped under cables' or 'guy in forest eating an ice cream cone while a bear lurks in the background' is necessary? Those pictures (or things like it) totally…

Planking? So earlier this year! Anyone can lie down on something. I do it every night on my bed. And I'm unconscious the whole time. But stocking—recreating the bizarre, hilarious world of stock photos—takes serious talent.